WASHINGTON—The Senate on Tuesday advanced $1.1 billion in emergency funding to combat the Zika virus, but remained at odds with the House over how much money should be directed to tackle the public health threat.

A measure from Sens. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) and Patty Murray (D., Wash.) that would designate $1.1 billion for both international and domestic Zika control and prevention efforts, cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday in a 68-29 vote.

The Senate deal provides less than the $1.9 billion the White House had requested from Congress in February for a broad initiative that would include mosquito-control programs and birth-defect surveillance. Health officials have said programs may have to be delayed or stopped without emergency funding.

New studies have shed light on how the Zika virus -- which can cause serious birth defects -- may be transmitted from infected mother to unborn child. Image: Dr. Indira U. Mysorekar, Dr. Bin Cao/Washington University

“We have trimmed this package back to what really addresses the emergency,” Mr. Blunt told reporters Tuesday. Democrats said they hoped to approve additional funding later, but would support the $1.1 billion now as an interim compromise with Republicans.

“Republicans in the Senate are only willing to do about half of what’s required,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Tuesday. “Do our Republican friends think that only half the mosquitoes are going to sit the season out?”

The measure from Sens. Blunt and Murray, the top lawmakers on a Senate Appropriations panel responsible for health funding, is considered emergency funding and isn't paid for by cuts to the budget elsewhere. The $1.1 billion amendment is expected to be attached most likely Wednesday to a military construction and transportation spending bill, which the Senate is expected to pass later this week.

House Republicans, meanwhile, have insisted that any new funds for combating Zika be offset by trimming the budget somewhere else. Their stand-alone bill, which the House is expected to begin debating Wednesday, would provide $622 million to fight Zika through September and wouldn't add to the federal budget deficit. Instead, the House GOP bill would redirect funds they say are left over from the Ebola outbreak and other unused money at the Health and Human Services Department.

“This legislation will make dollars available to fight the disease now, prioritizing critical activities that must begin immediately, such as vaccine development and mosquito control,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R., Ky.) said in a statement Monday. “The legislation funds these efforts in a responsible way, using existing resources—including excess funding left over from the Ebola outbreak—to pay for it.”

The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the House bill, saying its funding is “woefully inadequate to support the response our public health experts say is needed” and that it would be a mistake to redirect funding away from Ebola prevention efforts.

Proponents of the funding say the onset of warmer weather is creating a dire funding need. The money would be used to control mosquito populations, develop vaccines and increase laboratory capacity for research into the virus connected with birth defects.

The $1.1 billion Senate package would direct $361 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for programs and $200 million to the National Institutes of Health to aid in vaccine research. Money would also go toward new diagnostic tests for the Zika virus, and more than $50 million for Puerto Rico, which has been especially hard hit.

Democrats said they hoped the bipartisan support for the Senate measure would apply pressure on the House to approve the Senate bill as the fastest route to deploying the Zika funding. Senate Republicans said they expected that lawmakers from both chambers would begin negotiating a compromise once the House bill has passed.

Two competing Zika funding proposals were blocked on procedural votes in the Senate Tuesday. One measure that would have fully funded the administration’s $1.9 billion request stalled in a 50-47 vote. It received the support of 45 members of the Democratic caucus and five Republicans: Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Rob Portman of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida.

A measure from Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) that would have provided $1.1 billion in Zika funding, offset by trims to the 2010 health law was halted in a 52-45 vote. Both measures needed 60 votes to advance.